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December I, 1855.] THE MABEB, JilSJ
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has afforded matter for contemplation be...
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Religious Protectionists. The Irish Atto...
believe the aggressive-tendencies of St . Vladimir ; 'but we do not see the advantage oi meeting such aggression by counter-aggressidh . Nor is Dublin the only place where the Protestant enters into a damaging competition with the Catholic Church . There is a new Church of a very p eculiar kind rising in Turkey . The Society for the Propagation oi the Gospel in Foreign Parts , with the sanction of " J . B . Cantuar , " is carrying out the request of the Reverend John E . Sabin , senior chaplain at Scutari , by sending out two chaplains to Pera . The first object of these men is modest enough : it is , to supply spiritual ministrations for the " English sailors , shipping agents , store keepers ^ and other temporary residents near Constantinople ; " but besides supplying divine service and religious consolation for store keepers and sailors who may be in want thereof , the mission has an eye to business in another line . The Roman Catholics have three Churches in Constantinople , and they will not certainly be behind-hand in endeavouring to convert the Turks ; and " Now that no Turk on the Bosphorus could be put to death for accepting the religion of Jesus Christ , if he claimed the protection of France or England , " the Society for the Propagation seizes the opportunity . ' Turkey being under obligations to us , she cannot slay her sons for listening to the voice of the charmer . The Roman Catholics , says Mr . Sabin , " -will doubtless have great successes , with the French army to back them ; " can the English expect less , when they have the British army to back them ? Such is the calculation avowed by the Reverend John E . Sabin , and the Society for the Propagation , > with the sanction of J . B . Cantuak . The Protestant aggression is more temperate than the Catholic , but it is still aggression . We calculate on being able to disobey the laws of the Sultan , because the Sultan is down in the world , and so we can force a contraband trade in doctrine , with armies to back us in overruling the spiritual Custom House of Turkey . The independent papers of this country are reiterating the story of the re-marriage at GreywelL Mr . Lush , the Curate of that place , found that two members of the Church had been ' married before the Registrar , and he encouraged their doubt , whether , although they were married legally , they had been married spiritually . He re-marries them ; whereupon great public indignation . But Lush is only carrying amongst the Dissenters of Greywcll , the same sp irit that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel is carrying at Pern , and that the Pori ; , with more arrogance , is carrying into Austria . Mr . Lush is more temperate than the Society or the Pon : ; for he docs not calculate upon an army to back him , and he does not attempt to disturb the civil relations of his parishioners . If propagating societies and Popes would limit themselves entirely to spiritual questions ? , they might perhaps be suffered to marry any number of people once a year , since the re-married must be volunteers in that welf-disparaging process , and " Volenti noil Jit in / uria . " One curious confession in all these cases of aggressive policy is , the want of confidence which the aggressive ministers feel in their own doctrine . The Irish Attoknky Genejeal , thinks tlrat Protestantism cannot maintain its ground in Ireland against the antics of a St . Vi-APiMiit , unless a grave quarrel be made with that temporary representative of the Irish mob on the relative value of the nuthorised and the Doimy versions of the Scriptures , with a competition between the bonfire and the Criminal Court in judicial miracles . The Propagandist Society counts upon the abject condition of Turkey uiul the occupying army , and the Pon : requires material backing
, to enforce his views of matrimony , education ? : & c . Lush stands free from these intemperances . i Now , in all these cases , the aggression really consists , not in the promulgation of the doctrine , but in the collateral forces . prostituted to the purpose of conversion . If J . B . Cantuarj * the Propagating Society , and Mr . Sabin would simply lay their arguments before the Turk , that silent person would exercise a really independent judgment . . If the Pope and Lutoeu were to plead their respective causes before Italian , Hungarian , or Bohemian , probably the popular judge would show favour to neither of the missionaries ; but would perceive that the sectarian dogmas urged by either with so much acrimony against the rest are not essential to the relig ion of Jesus Christ . These temporal appeals , in fact , whether for offence or defence , only disturb the mind from its free judgment . How can we triist the conversion of the Turk , backed by an army ? How can avc win the Irish to Protestantism through the Attorney-General ? The true function of the civil power is , not to enforce the demands of any sect whatever , or in any degree , but rather to protect the citizen in the free exercise of his will , as well as his limbs , against the compulsory claims of any sect . If , in this country , we could set an example of absolute freedom in that way , leaving every man who behaves himself with decency to walk , talk , and worship as he pleases , defending him against the obstruction or coercion of any priest or prophet , we should teach the world Iioav to rule in matters of religion , and should no doubt open the way for the propagation of really powerful doctrines . It is free discussion which , in our day , has abolished Atheism , and done much to drive out other anti-religious " isms . " As doctrine will force j its way by its own vital energy , it needs no i protection : the citizen alone ueeds to be protected against the presumptuous aggression of human sectaries , affecting to serve a writ in the name of Divine Power .
December I, 1855.] The Mabeb, Jilsj
December I , 1855 . ] THE MABEB , JilSJ
Has Afforded Matter For Contemplation Be...
has afforded matter for contemplation before to-day . To see poverty making clothes for the poor is a spectacle sufficiently affecting ; but a starving man seated at his loom and weaving bright and delicate tissues , to cover the limbs of the rich , the lusty and the heedless , is a far sadder and more terrible picture . From time to time the Spitalfields weavers have been heard complaining of a hard lot , —* - scanty wages in a dear food market , and occasionally their voices have readied St . Stephen ' s . In Mr . Pitt ' s time , it was under contemplation to give the Spitalfield weavers a minimum rate of prices , and to enforce that by legislative enactment ; but somehow or other the thing was not managed , the crisis blew over , and so did Mr . Put ' s scheme . Not that such a rate would have permanently settled tlie question ; for it has since been shown that tlie minimum rate then prepared fwhich was at tlie time rejected by the operatives themselves ) exceeds the maximum rate now granted . So futile are all legislative attempts to fetter tlie freedom of trade . The Spitalfield weavers have now turned out , because their masters have lowered their wages upon the plea of bad trade . They use precisely the same arguments as their Manchester brethren , and * say that when food is dear and work scarce , it is a bad time to lower wages ; they also meet their employers upon economical grounds , and attempt to show that there is no good reason why they should be mulcted of theii pay . They are holding " shop meetings , " and deputations of delegates are waiting upon the employers , some of whom receive them kindly , others contumeliously . The whole affair is proceeding with all tlie 1 regularity of a Lancashire strike , and lie that wishes to study the details of one of these terrible battles need not go to Manchester , but betake himself to that populous and povertystricken district which lies about Whitechapol , Shoreditch , and Bethnal Gieen . 01 iiscuswons
In the course or one m <> which have been already hold between the workpeoyjle and their employers , one of the latter observed that when machine-makers were badly off , they were glad to sell their machines at a very low figure , and he did not see why capitalists should not have the same ' advantage ; in purchasing human labour . This was stating the . question boldly and honestly , and here we have the whole creed of the " hard-fact , " capitalists . "What is the operalive , after all , but a sc . H-ue . ting machine of ilesli , bone , and sinew ? Is he not to be bought , and sold like his brethren of brass and steel ? What have we to clo ¦ with any . other consideration but his market price ? Softly , good sirs ! Your machines of brass and steel may be laid by for a time , if your trade- will not permit you to employ them ; only wrap them up warmly and oil them well , and they will take little harm from years of iime . lioii . But your human machine is mute , another sort , of thing . The unfed operative pines , starves , becomes desperate , forgets how to work , loams how to beg , drink , rob , riot , and destroy . You may imprison him , you may . slioot , him down with musketry in the streets ; but , you can no more make a good workman of him again than you can restore putrid meat , to its original freshness . In a word ( to bring tin- matter , gentlemen , to your unctuous ami commercial him erslamlni " A you spoil your jiiiichincs , so i / mt "'< -J uTcuiiiu not only iim-I-. v , but . . lungcrous . : ;;;; v •!•; := - r ;^ : r ; - ' r « r Z ^ . ncrHl rd .. ti ..,, s between Cnp . tal u . Ml I , a -
THE SPITALFIELDS WEAVERS . What a keen eye we have for distant affairs , and how blind are we to that Avhich is going on under our very noses ! Hero is the whole London press in a turmoil about the strike at Manchester , while seemingly unconscious that a deadly strife between capital and labour is actually waging in Kpitalfields . The lending journal busies itself with the Lancashire matter , and gives whole columns of speeches and manifestos spoken and written on either side of the question , but the Spitalfieltls dispute has been hitherto altogether ignored by it—us indeed by all those organs of the daily press which circulate among- the thoughtful classes . There is something in the history of these Spitalfields weavers which separates them from all other operatives , and invests them with peculiar intere . it . In 1 G 85 , when tlie ( iiticvT MoNMtcii , Loi : is the FoCRTKKNTli , wickedly repealed the edict of Nantes , and persecuted all tlie Protestants out of France , a large body of silk weavers , . staunch Protestants all , came and settled themselves in SpilaliichLs , where , they continued to pursue their calling . This was a hundred and seventy years ago , but the trade still holds to the locality , and lh <; traditions of the operatives , and the "number of foreign names yet among ; them indicate that tlie original stock has been equally constant . The inhabitant of western and fashionable London may not be familiar with these facts , but to those , of eastern experience that colony of workers , so industrious and generally so patient , ( though apt occasionally to betray the hot blood of Lyons and Marseilles by boiling up indignantly against oppression and wrong )
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 1, 1855, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01121855/page/11/
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